TURKEYS 207 



tipped with velvety black ; greater wing coverts copper color, tipped with 

 black ; tail brown, both it and its coverts tipped with chestnut, rusty or 

 whitish. Plumage of adult female : similar but the chest tuft lacking, 

 color less brilliant, size far smaller ; bare area about head greatly restricted. 

 Wing of adult male 21.00 ; tail 18.50 ; weight 16 to 40 lbs. Weight of adult 

 female about 12 lbs. (Ridgw.). 



Geog. Dist. — Eastern United States from southwestern Pennsylvania to 

 the Gulf coast and west to the Plains along wooded river valleys, very local 

 and restricted in range and numbers now; formerly north to southern Maine, 

 southern Ontario, and up the Missouri River to North Dakota. 



County Records. — Hancock ; formerly occurred on Mount Desert Island, 

 (Townsend, B. N. 0. C. 1, p. 60). The species is also credited to "southern 

 Maine" (Allen, B. N. 0. C. 1, p. 55). 



In view of past history there seems no reason for doubting 

 that the Wild Turkey was once quite generally distributed 

 throughout southern Maine, ranging eastward at least to 

 Mount Desert, but it has been extinct in Maine for so many 

 years that we cannot accurately state just when it ceased to 

 exist here. 



In the remote and inaccessible swamps and spots where a 

 few still exist in the Southern States, they are found in small 

 flocks of ten or fifteen of both sexes except in the breeding 

 season when the gobblers fight fiercely and such small groups 

 as hang together consist of a gobbler and the few hens he is 

 able to win and retain by winning and defending them from 

 a rival. They roost in trees and usually frequent the same 

 locality until driven away. The gobbling of the male and the 

 piping of the female is not different from the well known calls 

 of the domestic birds. The gobbler struts in about the same 

 manner. 



When it comes time to lay the female steals away from the 

 rest of the flock and makes a nest of a few leaves on the ground 

 at the foot of a tree or bush in some thicket. Here she lays 

 eight to fourteen eggs which are pale cream buff more or less 

 heavily spotted and dotted with pale chocolate and reddish 

 brown. An egg is said to measure 2.42 x 1.83 (Ridgw.). 



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